THE year 2015 was an eventful one for the opera world, with much of the drama happening off-stage.

By December both the Royal Opera and English National Opera had lost their artistic directors. English National Opera was also facing a threat of further cutbacks at the Coliseum after a 29 per cent cut to their Arts Council grant.

There were even rumours that its excellent chorus and orchestra might be placed on part-time contracts, which would surely lead to the dismantling of one of our national treasures. This would be nothing less than a tragedy. The Coliseum is where many of today’s opera goers first learnt to love the art form.

Considering that Berlin has three thriving opera houses, and Paris has two plus operetta venues, it is shameful that London would possess only one such permanent house if ENO goes. Among ENO’s brave new productions last year was a sensational Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk.

ENO’s orchestra under music director Mark Wigglesworth gave an inspired performance. Russian Dmitri Tcherniakov’s surreal mingling of 19th-century Russia with the present day was illuminating. Patricia Racette smouldered as the abused wife who murders her father-in-law and husband.

Spanish director Calixto Bieito’s staging for ENO of Verdi’s revenge opera The Force Of Destiny may have caused dispute, but was overall a stunning evening – Spanish civil war and Italian honour killings combined in a dark and toxic brew.

American soprano Tamara Wilson won acclaim as fugitive heroine Leonora, and James Creswell was a creepily perverse Father Superior. Italian director Damiano Michieletto brought us the best and worst new productions at the Royal Opera last year.

In a muddled staging of Rossini’s Guillaume Tell, a graphic rape scene was greeted with an outburst of booing. Michieletto redeemed himself with a gripping Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci that set the two one-act operas in the same Italian village during the same day.

The Royal Opera at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse produced the best of the year’s “Orphic” events with Luigi Rossi’s Orpheus in Keith Warner’s delectable staging. Glyndebourne Festival Opera saw a vintage year. Surprise hit was Handel’s Saul.

Usually seen as a concert oratorio, it was magicked into a gorgeous riot of excess by Australian director Barrie Kosky, with Christopher Purves towering as the insane king. Another success was David McVicar’s witty staging of Mozart’s The Abduction From The Seraglio, with young German bass Tobias Kehrer as a scene-stealing Osmin.

Danielle de Niese created a double-hit by taking both roles in Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole and L’Enfant Et Les Sortillèges. Garsington Opera brought us Paul Curran’s haunting Death In Venice, Britten’s last opera, with tenor Paul Nilon as Aschenbach and a Tadzio to die for in dancer Celestin Boutin.

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Opera singer Tamara Wilson

Bruno Ravella’s realistic Intermezzo, Richard Strauss’s domestic drama based on the composer’s stormy marriage, was deliciously funny with Mark Stone as Strauss’s alter ego and Mary Dunleavy as his fiery wife. Opera Holland Park went in for the marathon with Puccini’s triptych Il Trittico, three one-act operas of melodrama, tragedy and comedy.

Anne Sophie Duprels shone in the roles of Giorgetta and Suor Angelica. And OHP also produced an unheralded gem in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, based on the true story of a refugee living in an international airport. Directed by Stephen Barlow, with James Laing as the refugee and Jennifer France as Controller, it was for me the comedy hit of the year.